NASCAR taps the brakes on ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ car — says driver ‘jumped the gun’: report

NASCAR says it has not approved driver Brandon Brown's "Let's Go Brandon"-themed sponsorship and race-car paint scheme, which made national headlines Thursday after Brown's team announced it.

"Late Thursday afternoon, a NASCAR spokesperson confirmed to Motorsport.com that the LGBcoin_io sponsorship for Brown has not yet been approved and the team 'jumped the gun' in publicizing its announcement Thursday morning," the racing news site reported.

Motorsport.com editor Jim Utter added: "#NASCAR must pre-approve ALL sponsors and paint schemes .... been a rule for longer than I've covered the sport."

According to the Charlotte Observer, "All sponsorship must be approved by NASCAR officials through a formal submission process, which has not occurred in this case. Brown’s team has submitted the sponsorship to NASCAR for consideration."

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"NASCAR has attempted to distance itself from the chant after an NBC Sports reporter suggested fans were chanting 'Let’s Go Brandon' during an interview with Brown," the Observer reported. "The crowd at Talladega Superspeedway actually was chanting F--- Joe Biden."

Earlier Thursday, Brown announced the sponsorship from LGBCoin, a cryptocurrency company whose first three letters are a reference to the slogan. Brown, who recently complained that he was unable to get a sponsorship because of the slogan, posted a news release about the sponsorship on Twitter, along with a video of him seeing the "LGB" car for the first time.

“If we do our job right, when you think of us, and you hear, ‘Let’s Go Brandon,’ you’ll think and feel, ‘Let’s Go America.'" LGBCoin's James Koutoulas said in the news release, which also states that "the patriotic coin dubbed 'America’s Coin' aims to inspire positivity and unity, grounded in a strong belief of the American dream."